Lansing - For 29 years, a cigarette butt tucked away by the Michigan State Police held the secret to Betty Jean Goodrich’s death.
State police investigators announced this month they linked DNA found on the cigarette to former Mason resident Charles Joseph Emery, placing him at the scene of the Lansing woman’s death.
The DNA testing technology, which has become a popular crime-solving technique in its 10-year life span, prompted detectives to reopen the case.
“I sorted the evidence out, repackaged it and submitted it to the lab for analysis,” said state police Detective Sgt. Shelley Heindel, who began working on the case when it reopened in March. “It’s surprising that the DNA will last on a piece of evidence for that long of a time. It’s amazing to us that the technology can give us those results.”
Goodrich was last seen alive Aug. 11, 1972 at Meijer, 5125 W. Saginaw Highway in Lansing. Her body was found the next day in Nashville, Mich. Investigators had enough evidence to make Emery a suspect, but there wasn’t enough to convict him.
Although Emery died in 1992, Heindel said she was ecstatic to give Goodrich’s four children a chance to heal.
“My first thought was just, ‘Who are we going to call first?’” she said. “ I know how much it means to the family to finally have some answers.
“We could do this because of the excellent work of the old detectives. They just did a heck of a job on this.”
Scientists at the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Laboratory, 7320 North Canal Road in Lansing, solve cases such as Goodrich’s by extracting nuclear DNA from evidence and matching it to other DNA samples.
Nuclear DNA is usually used to solve recent crimes because it breaks down quickly. Because the Goodrich evidence was discovered quickly and kept in a dark, cool place, the DNA remained intact.
“We can go back 20 or 30 years, but we’re pushing it with nuclear DNA,” said state police forensic scientist Glen Hall. “The DNA is only as good as the evidence itself. If it’s a dried sample, there’s a chance we can get something from it.”
Three state labs, including facilities in Grand Rapids and Northville, work with DNA from cases across the state. The Detroit Police Department has its own DNA testing facility.
Cases too complex even for the state labs are often sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, where scientists work with mitochondrial DNA.
Mitochondrial DNA lasts longer than the nuclear DNA found on Emery’s cigarette butt, but it is more difficult to identify. The testing technique is often used to identify remains of soldiers from World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
“We’re real experts at that,” said institute spokesman Christopher Kelly. “DNA is a remarkable tool. We can take small tissue specimens and make a positive identification or clear someone from a case. It plays a critical role now.”
Jay Siegel, director of MSU’s Forensic Science Program, said techniques for DNA testing have become commonplace, using the procedures for crimes of violence, homicide or biological questions. MSU will open a small DNA lab on campus within a few years to aid a new forensic biology master’s program, he said.
“It’s pretty good at what it does,” Siegel said. “It’s not particularly difficult and has standard methods used throughout. We’ll be developing the technique in coming years to where there will be no doubt at all.”
But as the technique becomes more precise, privacy issues surrounding the technology grow.
Although state law already requires convicted rapists and murderers to provide DNA samples, state legislators passed a bill last summer requiring anyone convicted of a felony to provide a sample for a national registry.
Heindel said when the Automated Fingerprint Information System came online years ago, it changed the way police hunt for criminals - and a DNA registry can only help more.
“(Police work) years ago was probably harder than mine, because they didn’t have the fax machines and computer databases,” Heindel said. “It was the old-fashioned way of hitting the street and getting it.
“(Cases such as Goodrich’s) are out there. Detectives just need a chance to get them. The technology keeps changing. We’re just trying to think of what we can collect now to help 30 years from now.”
Jamie Gumbrecht can be reached at gumbrec1@msu.edu.
